Thursday, August 1, 2013

This August, tell Congress what you think -- Aug. 1, 2013 column

With Congress on a five-week
vacation, it’s your chance to give your House member and senators a piece of
your mind.

An old-fashioned town hall meeting is
probably coming your way. Yes, tweeting is faster, but getting in a lawmaker’s
face? Priceless.

When Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Va.,
sponsored a town hall meeting in Lynchburg last month, the last person to stand
and speak was Dulce Elias, 16, whose parents brought her to the United States
when she was 3.

“I love it here. This is my
country. I want to keep on pursuing my education and I want to serve my
country. But I can’t because I am undocumented,” Elias said, choking up, the
News & Advance reported.

Please, she implored Goodlatte, help
the children whose parents brought them here and have done nothing wrong.

Goodlatte, the powerful chairman of
the House Judiciary Committee, strongly opposes immigration reform until the
borders are secure and enforcement is tightened. He’s no fan of citizenship for
all 11 million undocumented individuals, but he said he would look into the
issue.

“Maybe for someone like you, it could include
a pathway for citizenship,” he said.

In 2009, tea party activists hijacked town
hall meetings and turned them into shouting matches over health care reform and
federal spending. In 2010, many Democratic members of Congress skipped town
halls to avoid a scene with constituents. Nobody loves being yelled at. This
year, though, Democrats say they won’t cede the field and intend to talk about
immigration reform. Republicans want to focus on, what else, the evils of
“Obamacare” and big government.

The Senate passed a bipartisan immigration
bill June 27 that includes a path for citizenship for 11 million undocumented
immigrants. The Republican House leadership rejects that comprehensive approach
and may vote on several separate bills this fall.

Progressives will use the summer
recess to pressure the GOP. Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., had a warning for
House members: “If you have a town hall or if you don’t, we’re going to find
you in the grocery store because this is it. We’ve never been this close,” he said
Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Polls
show public support for a path for citizenship, but House Republicans fear GOP
challengers from the party’s anti-immigration wing. So Republicans in the House
plan to focus on topics the party faithful can agree on.

“We’ll make sure lawmakers
understand the American people expect then to defund Obamacare in its
entirety,” said Heritage’s Michael Needham.

Democrats have warned that trying
to defund the health law will result in a government shutdown, and that could
have disastrous consequences for the economy.

Responsible Republican members of
Congress who want to keep the government open have a tough job going against
the anti-government tide. Video snippets posted online of a town hall meeting Monday
in Wetumpka, Ala., illustrate the problem.

Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., 37 and a
second-term House member, met with skepticism from a tea party audience when
she said shutting down the federal government was a bad idea.

“If we shut the government down, I
believe that’s exactly what Barack Obama wants us to do,” Roby said, explaining
that Obama would win more seats in Congress in 2014, dooming Republican chances
to repeal the health law.

“The last thing we need to do is to
give this guy unfettered control for two years,” she said.

That wasn’t enough for a woman
named Jody, who called Roby on the carpet for being too close to the “moderate
elite establishment of the Republican Party, in particular John Boehner.” Roby
tried to explain why being able to agree – and disagree -- with the House
Speaker might be a good idea. No go.

Oh, the drama. I’m waiting for the
reality TV folks to discover “Real Congress of Grassroots America.” Until then,
check out a town hall meeting in a town or city near you this summer.